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page | Senate Daily Summary
No. 23/2008
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The Senate met from 9.30am until 9.31pm
The
Senate will meet again on 16 June 2008.
Senate committees will meet from 26 May to 5 June 2008 to
examine budget
estimates.
Budget 2008-09
Budget Papers, Portfolio Budget Statements and related sites
<www.budget.gov.au>
The
Opposition, the Leader of the
Australian Democrats, the
Australian Greens and the Leader of the
Family First Party responded to the Budget statement and
documents.
Legislation
Bills and related documents available on BillsNet <www.aph.gov.au/bills/index.htm>
Bills considered
The following bills were introduced
- Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Political Donations and Other
Measures) Bill 2008 [new Senate bill]
- Higher Education Support Amendment (Removal of the Higher
Education Workplace Relations Requirements and National Governance
Protocols Requirements and Other Matters) Bill 2008 [passed by the
House of Representatives on 14 May 2008]
- Renewable Energy (Electricity) Amendment (Feed-in-Tariff) Bill
2008 [private senator's bill]
- Social Security and Veterans' Entitlements Legislation
Amendment (One-off Payments and Other Budget Measures) Bill 2008
[passed by the House of Representatives on 14 May 2008]
- Unit Pricing (Easy comparison of grocery prices) Bill 2008
[private senator's bill]
- Veterans' Entitlements Legislation Amendment (2007 Election
Commitments) Bill 2008 [passed by the House of Representatives on
14 May 2008]
The following private senator's bill was restored to the Notice
Paper
- Parliamentary (Judicial Misbehaviour or Incapacity) Commission
Bill 2007 [2008]
The following bill was exempted from the cut-off order [to
enable consideration in this period of sittings]
- Social Security and Veterans' Entitlements Legislation
Amendment (One-off Payments and Other Budget Measures) Bill
2008
The following bill was debated
- Tax Laws Amendment (Personal Income Tax Reduction) Bill 2008
second reading agreed to [
first speaker ] [details of the bill will be considered on a
future sitting day]
The following bills were passed
- Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Amendment Bill 2008
[This bill will now be assented to]
- Offshore Petroleum Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2008
[This bill will now be assented to]
- Social Security and Veterans' Entitlements Legislation
Amendment (One-off Payments and Other Budget Measures) Bill 2008
[This bill will now be assented to]
- Statute Law Revision Bill 2008 [The House of Representatives
will now consider this bill]
- Superannuation Legislation Amendment (Trustee Board and Other
Measures) (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2008 [The House of
Representatives will now consider this bill]
Message from the House of Representatives
- Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (National Broadband
Network) Bill 2008 agreeing to the bill with
amendments [The Senate agreed to the amendments. The bill will
now be assented to]
Committees
For scheduled public
committee hearings
For committee
reports
Estimates
Additional information arising from the 2007-08 additional
estimates hearings was tabled.
Reports tabled
Reports on legislation
-
Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
and Other Legislation Amendment (Emergency Response Consolidation)
Bill 2008 Community Affairs Committee
Other reports
- Privileges Committee
133rd report Possible false or misleading evidence before the
Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee [A
motion to endorse the findings at paragraph 1.31 was
debated.]
- Publications Committee
2nd Report [report adopted]
- Treaties Joint Committee
90th Report Treaties tabled on 12 March 2008
New inquiries
The Senate referred the following matters to the Community
Affairs Committee:
Proposed reference
The Senate did not agree to refer
matters relating to current disclosure regimes for charities to
the Economics Committee.
Variation
The Senate agreed to extend the reporting date for the
Agricultural and Related Industries Select Committee to 16 October
2008, and to
vary the Committee's membership provisions.
Notices of motion given
To refer matters to committees:
Membership
The Senate agreed to various changes to committee membership
[see Journals entries nos
26 and
50]
Documents
Delegated legislation
See Disallowance
Alert for a complete list of notices of motion to disallow (and
outcomes)
-
Clerk's documents were tabled [legislative instruments and
other documents required by statute to be tabled]
Orders for the production of documents
Motion agreed to
The Senate
ordered the Minister representing the Minister for Defence
(Senator Faulkner) to table documents relating to defence
procurement projects, no later than 4.00pm on 19 June 2008.
Notices of motion given
The following notices of motion were given requiring Ministers
to table documents:
- Each minister in the Senate to table
lists of all appointments made and vacancies to be filled by
the Government no later than 7 days before the commencement of the
budget, supplementary budget and additional estimates hearings
moved by Senator Minchin
- Each minister in the Senate to table
a list of grants approved no later than 7 days before the
commencement of the budget, supplementary budget and additional
estimates hearings moved by Senator Minchin
Documents tabled
Ministerial statement
The Special Minister of State (Senator Faulkner) made a
statement relating to security threats against the Australian
High Commissioner and his staff in Fiji.
Other business
Questions without notice and issues arising during question time
first question
Adjournment debate
first speaker
Motions agreed to
Motions negatived
Motion debated
Statement
The Minister for Human Services (Senator Ludwig) made a
statement relating to the retirement of the Chief Executive
Officer of Centrelink, Mr Jeff Whalan.
Notices of motion
Notices of motion given today are available in the Senate
Journals.
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Online
The Senate Daily Summary is available on the Internet
at www.aph.gov.au/senate
It is issued by the Senate Table Office as a convenient summary
of each day's proceedings in the Senate. For a complete account see
the official record, the Journals of the Senate, on the
Internet at http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/pubs/index.htm
Related resources
The Order of Business (or Senate Red') and the
Dynamic Red (which updates the Order of Business
throughout the sitting day) are also available on the Internet at
www.aph.gov.au/senate
Contact details
Inquiries, comments and suggestions:
phone 6277 3021
e-mail: sds@aph.gov.au